History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 13

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A native-born citizen, his birth occurred April 6, 1874. Here he grew to manhood and received his elementary education, in 1890 being graduated from the Willoughby high school. In 1894 Mr. Shankland received his diploma from Adelbert College of the West-

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ern Reserve University, and the same year

bright, was born in Philadelphia, was the was elected teacher of science in the Wil- originator of "Bear's Almanac," went to Lan- loughby high school, in 1895 becoming its principal. Serving so efficiently as head of the institution, his administrative talents be- came recognized, and in 1896 Mr. Shankland was elected superintendent of the Willoughby schools, and to their betterment has devoted his best efforts.

For nine years Mr. Shankland was a mem- ber of the Lake county board of school exam- iners, and in November, 1905, had the dis- tinction of being elected, on the Republican ticket, to represent Lake county in the state legislature, and was re-elected to the same position in 1908. Fraternally, Mr. Shank- land is a member and past master of Wil- loughby Lodge, No. 302, F. & A. M .; a mem- ber and past high priest of Painesville Chap- ter, No. 46, R. A. M .; and a member and past commander of Eagle Commandery, No. 29, K. T.

Mr. Shankland married, July 12, 1904, Ethel A. Haskell, and they have one daughter, Frances Josephine Shankland. In October of 1909 Mr. Shankland resigned his position in the Willoughby public schools, to become di- rector of the Andrews Institute for Girls, which was founded by the will of the late W. C. Andrews.

NAPOLEON JEROME ALEXANDER MINICH, a business man of Kent, was born in Columbia, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, October 2, 1849, and is the son of Henry G. and Ann Catherine (Albright) Minich, a grandson of Jacob and Elizabeth (Gamber) Minich, and a great-grandson of John Minich, who came from Hesse - Darmstadt, Germany, in 1754. Henry G. Minich was born May 25, 1817, at Landisville, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and was a leather dresser by occupation; in later years he engaged in the meat business, at Columbia, Pennsylvania, which he carried on until his retirement from business in 1873, and he died on May 19, 1895. He married Ann Catherine, daughter of Anthony and Susan (Scheibe) Albright, born November 30, 1818, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her grandfather, John Mathias Scheibe, was a native of Prussia, Germany, and after his ar- rival in this country served in the Revolu- tionary war. Anthony Albright was born in 1781, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his wife was born in 1782, at Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania. Anthony Albright's father, John Al-

caster, Pennsylvania, where he started the first paper, The American Messenger, pub- lished in that city, and at his death was suc- ceeded by his son Anthony, who continued the business for fifteen years. Ann Catherine, the wife of Henry G. Minich, is the only liv- ing member of a class of children who sang for Lafayette at his first visit to Lancaster when he last visited America, in 1824. He took the hand of each child and gave some word of praise; the school which they at- tended is still standing, corner of Prince and Chestnut streets. Henry G. Minich and his wife had the following children: Jacob A., of Columbia, Pennsylvania; T. J., of Chicago, Illinois; Charles W., who died in 1905; N. J. A .; Hester Ellen, who died on October 22, 1873, aged twenty-one; George W., who died in 1854, at the age of three; Benjamin F., of Columbia, Pennsylvania; and Harry J., of Philadelphia.

N. J. A. Minich received his early education in the public schools of Columbia, and spent the years from 1863-68 in the Columbia Clas- sical Institute. He then entered the office of the Columbia Spy in order to learn the trade of printer, and was employed there until Sep- tember, 1871, when he went to Chicago, but a short time later, at the time of the Chicago fire, he returned to Columbia and spent the next year in Lancaster and New York City. On September 19, 1872, he located in Akron, Ohio, and became connected with the Akron Daily Beacon; about a year later H. G. Gar- field and Mr. Minich established the Akron Daily Argus, which he sold in 1875, and Mr. Minich then became one of the editorial staff of the Beacon. On May 1, 1876, he removed to Kent, where he purchased the Kent Bulletin, which he owned and operated until March 15, 1902, at which time he sold the paper and became representative of the Continental Cas- ualty Company of Chicago, and has since re- mained in this accident and health insurance line. He is an energetic business man, and a public-spirited citizen, and has since coming to Kent, in 1876, been much interested in all progress and improvements of the city. He is a Republican ; has served on the board of health; and since 1900 has been a member of the board of control of the Kent Free Public Library. November 2, 1909, he was elected mayor of Kent; he is a member of Rockton Lodge, F. & A. M., and socially is affiliated

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with the Protected Home Circle.

Mr. Minich married, on August 3, 1873, Lottie E., daughter of Henry and Emily Jane (Hodges) McMasters, born in Akron, Ohio. Henry McMasters was born, in 1810, in Bur- lington, Vermont, and died April 6, 1872. He came to Akron in 1840 and established a bakery, which he carried on until his death. His wife was born in 1812, in Plattsburg, New York, and died December 5, 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Minich became the parents of one son, Henry Scott, born October 11, 1877, general inspector of Jamestown Traction Company, Jamestown, New York, and the Chautauqua Traction Company.

PROFESSOR GEORGE A. PECKHAM has been a valued member of the faculty of Hiram Col- lege for more than a quarter of a century, and in this historic institution of the Western Reserve he is now incumbent of the chair of Old Testament history. His popularity with the student body has ever been of the most unequivocal order and on a parity with his enthusiasm and distinguished ability in his chosen vocation. He is a native son of the Western Reserve, where the major portion of his life thus far has been passed, and he has attained to high standing and prestige in the field of education in his native commonwealth.

Professor Peckham was born in Middlebury, now known as East Akron, Summit county, Ohio, on the 17th of July, 1851, and is a son of Harry and Cornelia (Barney) Peckham. His father was born in New Haven, Con- necticut, and was a son of George A. and Rhoda (Hunter) Peckham, hoth natives of New England, where the respective families were founded in the colonial epoch of our national history, and both of staunch English lineage. When Harry Peckham was a child of four years his parents removed from Con- necticut to the Western Reserve and located in Tallmadge township, Summit county-a sec- tion then included in Portage county-where the father secured a tract of land and in due time reclaimed a productive farm, upon which he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. There Harry Peckham was reared to maturity and there he received such advan- tages as were afforded in the common schools of the period. During his youth he continued to be actively identified with agricultural pur- suits, but in later years he was long identified with the manufacturing of sewer pipe, at Akron. He passed the closing years of his

life in the city of Chicago, and was in his eighty-second year at the time of his death. He was a man of sterling attributes of char- . acter and his life was one of signal useful- ness and honor, though marked by no sensa- tional phases or public prominence. He was essentially one of the world's workers, and he made his life count for good in all its rela- tions. His political support was given to the Republican party, and he was a devout mem- ber of the Christian church, as is also his widow, who now maintains her home in La- Grange, Illinois, one of the beautiful suburbs of the city of Chicago, and who is eighty- three years of age at the time of this writing, in 1909. She was born in the state of New York, whence her parents removed to Penn- sylvania when she was a child, and later the family came to the Western Reserve, where her marriage to Harry Peckham was solem- nized. They became the parents of two sons and two daughters, all of whom are living and of whom Professor Peckham, of this re- view, is the eldest.

Professor Peckhanı was reared in his na- tive place and was afforded the advantages of the public schools of Akron, after which he was matriculated in Hiram College, where he remained as a student during the winter of 1869-70. During the following winter he was enrolled as a student in Bethany College, at Bethany, West Virginia, and he then en- tered Buchtel College, in Akron, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1875, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was for two years thereafter a tutor in his alma mater, and this institution conferred upon him, in 1877, the degree of Master of Arts. In 1877 he was ordained as a clergyman of the Christian church, and for one year he held the pastorate of the church of this denomination in Granger, Medina county. He was then called to the professor- ship of ancient languages in Buchtel College, of which chair he continued incumbent for two years, at the expiration of which period he accepted a similar chair in Hiram College, of whose faculty he has since been an honored and popular member. He has been identified with the work of this fine old institution for nearly thirty consecutive years, and since 1900 has held the chair of Old Testament history. He is a man of broad scholarship and con- tinues a close and appreciative student, keep- ing also in close touch with the best thought of the day, so that his usefulness as an edu-

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cator has shown a constantly cumulative tend- ency during the long years of his earnest and · devoted labor. In politics Professor Peckham is independent, and he and his wife are zeal- ous and devoted members of the Christian church, in the various departments of whose work they maintain an active part.

On New Year's day of the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Professor Peck- ham to Miss Anna C. Sisler, who was born in Manchester township, Summit county, Ohio, and who is a daughter of Houston and Glor- vinea Elizabeth (Hamm) Sisler, honored pio- neers of the Western Reserve, throughout which section the grandfather, John W. Hamm, was long in active service as a clergy- man of the Reformed church; both he and his wife are now deceased. Professor and Mrs. Peckham have two sons and two daugh- ters: Bertha is a stenographer and as such is employed in Hiram College; Mark S. is a clergyman of the Christian church, and is at present holding a pastoral charge at Sumter, South Carolina ; Harry H. is doing post-gradu- ate work in the literary department of the University of Chicago; and Anna Laura re- mains at the parental home, and is a student in Hiram College.

SIDNEY V. WILSON was born, October 15, 1823, in Norway, Herkimer county, New York, being the third child in succession of birth of a family of thirteen children born to his parents. He was brought up on his father's farm, which is now included within the limits of the Chautauqua Assembly Grounds. In the days of his youth, follow- ing the tide of emigration westward, he went to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he learned the wheelwright's trade. Not content, how- ever, to settle permanently in that locality, he decided to return as far east as Willoughby, Ohio, a place toward which he had been espe- cially attracted on his way out by the knowl- edge that it was named in honor of Dr. Wil- loughby, the family physician who assisted in bringing him into the world; and by the sign of "S. Smart," which hung over a little red grocery; and the striking appearance of a hotel painted in alternate colors of red, blue and green, known to the traveling public as the "Zebra Inn."

Soon after his arrival Mr. Wilson assumed the management of Zebra Inn, first, however, having for a short time been engaged in the manufacture of wagons, his shop standing on

what is now the corner of Erie and Spaulding streets. He made the wagons entirely by hand, and one of them was in use on the plains as late as 1890. While managing the inn, he had the distinction of entertaining the officials of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- road Company, who met here when the last spike connecting the Chicago and Buffalo divi- sions was driven.

In 1854, in company with K. S. Baker, Mr. Wilson embarked in mercantile pursuits, and for six years carried on a substantial business as a general merchant in Findlay, Ohio. Re- turning then to Willoughby, he was in part- nership with his father-in-law. S. Smart, the well-known merchant, from 1860 until 1870. Starting then in business alone, Mr. Wilson erected the store building now standing on Erie street, opposite Vine street, where he remained until 1889. Removing then to Car- rel block, he enlarged his operations, admit- ting into copartnership his son, Sidney S. Wilson, and as head of the firm of S. V. Wilson & Son built up a large and prosperous trade. In 1892 he admitted his younger son, Ray Wilson, into the firm, at the same time buying one of the Bond stores. In 1898 the son Ray was called to the higher life, his sudden death being a great shock to his par- ents and a sorrow to the entire community. In 1899 Mr. Wilson materially added to his business interests by purchasing the two stores and the entire stock of Dickey & Col- lister, from that time until his death being the leading merchant of Lake county, and one of its most progressive and influential business men. He died February 14, 1903, after a brief illness of one week, of pneu- monia, aged seventy-nine years.

Mr. Wilson was a man of strong individ- uality, among his most notable traits being his undoubted integrity, rigid scruples of honor, his genial courtesy, and his unbounded hospi- tality. Sympathetic and charitable, he had also a keen sense of humor, making him a most delightful companion, and was especially loved by the young people. No man, it is safe to say, ever had a better sense of the true value of wealth than he, and no man exacted from it and imparted from it a greater amount of happiness.

Sidney V. Wilson married, February 3, 1856, Hepzibah B. Smart, who was born at Orange, Cuyahoga county, New York, July 4, 1833, a daughter of the late Samuel Smart, who came with his family to Willoughby,

Gro. A. Chamberlain

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Ohio, in 1836, and for many years was proprie- tor of the little red grocery store, over which he displayed the sign "S. Smart." She was a woman of culture and refinement, having been educated in the old Willoughby Seminary, now Lake Erie College, and until her death, which occurred March 10, 1903, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. E. E. Flickinger, in Indianapolis, Indiana, she held her member- ship and her interest in the Alumnæ Associa- tion. Six children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, of whom two sons and a daughter died in infancy, and Ray, as men- tioned above, died in July, 1898. The two chil- dren living are Florence, wife of E. E. Flick- inger, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Sidney S., of Willoughby, Ohio.

HON. GEORGE HENRY CHAMBERLAIN .- A leading attorney and public citizen of Elyria, Hon. George H. Chamberlain is also a Repub- lican and a legislator who has exerted a strong influence throughout the state of Ohio and whose reputation is of the progressive and ex- pansive kind. This is the more gratifying to the historian of the Western Reserve since he is a native of Lorain county, born on the old farm in Grafton township, June 21, 1862, and is a son of the late George B. Chamberlain, himself one of the pioneers of that township, to which he was brought as a boy by his own parents. The grandfather of George H. was John Chamberlain, a native of New York state, who married Amy Perkins, granddaughter of John Perkins, a Revolutionary soldier, also from the Empire state. Both grandfathers were early settlers of Lorain county, the Cham- berlains coming in 1848 and settling in Grafton township, where John Chamberlain died in 1850, aged fifty-four years, and his wife in 1873, seventy-five years old.

George B. Chamberlain, the father, was born at Brookfield, Portland county, New York, in the year 1834, and was therefore fourteen years of age when his parents located in Graf- ton township. There he followed farming until about 1880; then retired, but was en- gaged in the hardware business at LaGrange for a short time before his death in 1884. Elizabeth Cragin, his wife, is still living in her seventy-second year, making. her home with her son, of this biography. Mrs. George B. Chamberlain is a native of LaGrange town- ship, Lorain county, daughter of Benjamin and Mahala (Boyington) Cragin. Her father was born in Weston, Windsor county, Vermont ;

married in that state, and became the parents of Lorena, Benjamin, Charles C., Adna A., Esther, Horace, Harrison and Elizabeth-Mrs. Chamberlain being the only one of the eight who was born in Ohio. In September, 1835, the Cragin family set out from Vermont in a wagon bound for Buffalo, New York, whence they proceeded to Cleveland and to Lorain county. Mr. Cragin's purchase in Grafton township consisted of 155 acres of woodland, at four dollars per acre. This tract he cleared to some extent, erected a log cabin, and there spent the balance of his hard-working and simple life, until July 31, 1865, his wife having preceded him to rest some ten years before. They were earnest members of the Methodist church to the last, Mr. Cragin having served for many years as a trustee, class leader and steward. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. George B. Chamberlain, as follows : Will- iam P., now a resident of Grafton, Ohio; George H .; Charles C., who died at the age of twelve years, and Emma Jane Chamberlain, who did not survive her infancy.

George H. Chamberlain remained on the farm in Grafton township until he was seven- teen years old, and was educated in its district schools and at Oberlin College. He then taught school for a time, read law in the office of E. G. Johnson, of Elyria, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. For two years thereafter he practiced at that place, and subsequently lo- cated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he en- gaged in the insurance business in connection with his professional work. Returning to Ely- ria in 1895, he re-entered practice, and has since progressed steadily in his chosen field as well as in the public affairs of his city and state.

Since 1896 Mr. Chamberlain has been par- ticularly prominent in Republican politics and state legislation. In that year he stumped Lo- rain county for McKinley, and also spoke for the presidential candidate in other parts of the state, since that time having participated in every campaign in his section of Ohio. In 1900 he presented the name of E. G. Johnson to the congressional convention. In 1906 Mr. Chamberlain was a candidate for the nomina- tion for Congress from the Fourteenth district, and during the long deadlock in the conven- tion held the united support of Lorain county, receiving, within four votes of the necessary number for the nomination. He finally with- drew, and his support was given to the nomi- nee that was subsequently elected. In 1901 he

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was nominated by the Republicans for the upper house of the legislature, serving as state senator in the seventy-fifth and seventy-sixth assemblies. In the latter session he was hon- ored by being chosen president pro tem by acclamation, and had the united support of both parties. In the seventy-fifth session he served on the committees of federal relations (chairman), labor, taxation, benevolent insti- tutions, judiciary, insurance, universities and colleges and municipal corporations, and in the seventy-sixth assembly was a member of the committees on public works, judiciary, com- mon schools, county affairs, taxation and Sol- diers and Sailors' Orphan Home. He left the house of representatives with the remarkable record of never having introduced and sup- posted a bill which failed of passing the sen- ate. In May, 1910, he received the nomina- tion on the Republican ticket for representa- tive in Congress from the Fourteenth dis- trict. In 1899 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of the Elyria board of education, with which he has since been identified-as its presi- dent for the past five years. He has also served as president of the board of elections ; is an active member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, and a citizen of the highest social and moral standing.

In June, 1883, Mr. Chamberlain married Miss Etta K. Mynderse, a native of LaGrange, Ohio, daughter of Andrew C. and Louise (Hart) Mynderse, both of whom are deceased. To this union have been born the following children : Charles B .; Geneva E., who gradu- ated from the Elyria High School, finished her education at Rochester, New York, and is now the instructor in domestic science in the Elyria public schools; Vera, who died at the age of fourteen ; George, Jr., a graduate of the Elyria High School and now connected with the Na- tional Tube Company, at Lorain, Ohio; Ger- trude A., who also completed her course in the Elyria High School in 1909 with the highest general average in the history of the Elyria High School; and Ruth, William, Robert and John, living at home.

ORION P. SPERRA is a well-known figure in the professional circles of central and north- eastern Ohio. At the age of maturity he began teaching school in Paris township of Portage county, and during his four years' connection with that profession he began the study of law and also worked as a book solici- tor. Admitted to the bar in the spring of 1878,

he began the practice of his profession at Ra- venna, and from that time forward he has been active in the public life of his state. Elected in 1878. he served six years as a jus- tice of the peace, and in 1893 he was elected the probate judge of Portage county, and was the incumbent of that office for three terms. On the Ist of May, 1903, he went to Colum- bus as the deputy state inspector for build- ing and loan associations and as supervisor of bond investment companies, and although his headquarters are in that city, he still main- tains his residence at Ravenna. He has super- vision over a force of nine men to examine six hundred and sixty-five building and loan associations in the state of Ohio. He has served many times on township, county and state committees and has served as chairman of the county executive committee.

Mr. Sperra was born in Ravenna on the 24th of July, 1853. a son of John R. and Mary A. (Gilmore) Sperra, who were born re- spectively near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and in Portage county, Ohio. The paternal family came originally from Germany, while on the maternal side they are from the north of Ire- land. From Lancaster county in Pennsyl- vania the Sperras came to Rootstown town- ship, Portage county, Ohio, and were large land owners and prominent farmers there. There also John R. Sperra and Mary A. Gil- more were married, and from there, in about the year 1850, they came to Ravenna and for many years the husband was the proprie- tor of a blacksmith shop here. He had also followed that occupation in Rootstown town- ship, but since 1897 he has lived retired from an active business life. He was born in 1825, and he has long survived his wife, who died in February of 1877, at the age of forty-seven years. Their children were as follows: Flor- ence, who died in 1865; Orion P., mentioned above; Henry, who died in 1884; and Flora, who died in 1879, when but nine years of age.

Orion P. Sperra received a good education in the public schools of Ravenna, and this was supplemented by attendance at the prepara- tory department of Michigan University at Ann Arbor and at Buchtel College in Akron. He married, on the 14th of February, 1883, Carrie M. Wagoner, from Akron, Ohio, a daughter of John J. and Catherine (Weaver) Wagoner, from Summit county of that state. The children of this union are: Cora Amy, who is teaching in the public schools of Ra- venna; Katherine W., the wife of Albert

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Kertscher, a salesman in Ravenna; and Helen J., at home with her parents. In politics Mr. Sperra is a Republican, and in fraternal cir- cles he has attained high rank in the Masonic order. He is a thirty-third-degree Mason, a member of Tyrian Chapter, No. 91, of Ra- venna; of the K. T. Commandery, No. 25, at Akron; of Lake Erie Consistory at Cleve- land, and of Al Koran Mystic Shrine of Cleve- land, and he served as grand high priest of Ohio from 1899 to 1900 and as grand master of the grand lodge from 1903 to 1904. He is also a charter member of the fraternal order of Elks in Ravenna, and has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1876, in which he has filled all the offices and was its secretary for many years, and he has also filled the offices in the Encampment of Odd Fellows, No. 129. He is a member of the college fraternity Delta Tau Delta, of Buchtel College.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 886

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 886